Fly Back, Agnes

Author: Elizabeth Atkinson

Paperback

A heartfelt story that sensitively tackles the everyday inner turmoil of growing up and staying true to oneself.

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Summary

A heartfelt story that sensitively tackles the everyday inner turmoil of growing up and staying true to oneself.

Description

A heartfelt story that sensitively tackles the everyday inner turmoil of growing up and staying true to oneself.

Twelve-year-old Agnes hates everything about her life: her name, her parents' divorce, her best friend's abandonment, her changing body . . . . So while staying with her dad over the summer, she decides to become someone else. She tells people she meets that her name is Chloe, she's fourteen, her parents are married, and she's a dancer and actor—just the life she wants.

But Agnes's fibs quickly stack up and start to complicate her new friendships, especially with Fin, whose mysterious relative runs a local raptor rehab center that fascinates Agnes. The birds, given time and care, heal and fly back home. Agnes, too, wants to get back to wherever she truly belongs. But first she must come to see the good in her real life, however flawed and messy it is, and be honest with her friends, her family, and herself.

Critic Reviews

“"When 12-year-old Agnes Moon's mother, Mo, announces that they'll be spending the summer in Kansas with Mo's boyfriend and his weird kid, Agnes quietly snaps. Furious, Agnes spins a little lie that gets her out of the whole ordeal. Now she's housesitting a beautiful home (and adorable dog!) with her dad all summer. Since he's busy working on his PhD during the day, Agnes has ample time to explore, which is how she ends up in the neighboring town of Renew. There, she makes new friends and reinvents herself as Chloe, a girl with the life and family of her dreams, a liberating feeling until the lies turn on her. Atkinson stuffs a few too many issues into this book, with divorce and blended families, puberty and Agnes getting her period, an intersex friend and best-friend drama all squeezed into one summer. However, readers may well identify with one or more of Agnes' experiences. Place this with books like Karen Rivers' A Possibility of Whales (2018) and Kim Harrington's Revenge of the Red Club (2019)."--Booklist”

"Place this with books like Karen Rivers' A Possibility of Whales (2018) and Kim Harrington's Revenge of the Red Club (2019)."—Booklist

About the Author

Elizabeth Atkinson has been an editor, a children's librarian, an English teacher, and a newspaper columnist. She lives in Newburyport, MA. Visit her at